Six Flags Sells Seven Parks

Smaller Theme Parks and Water Parks Are Cut from Snyder’s RosterIn an attempt to reduce debt, Daniel Snyder (Washington Redskins owner and Chairman of the board at Six Flags) has sold seven Six Flags theme parks. If the sale goes through, Jacksonville-based PARC 7F will get the parks for the price of $312 million. The seven parks are:

I think it’s a good move. Hopefully they’ll be able to manage the remaining larger parks better. While Six Flags parks don’t have the warm, homey, amusement park feel like say a Knoebels or Kennywood, I’ve had positive experiences at the majority of their parks. Although, Six Flags America and Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom could use some attention. Six Flags America, which I begrudgingly admit is my home park, could use some serious service upgrades. The ride ops are poor to mediocre at best. It suprises me that Six Flags America hasn’t seen drastic improvements since Snyder rose to power. It’s his home park too as Snyder lives in the Washington D.C. area so that he can run the Redskins. Snyder even closed the park to the public so that his family and the Cruise family could enjoy the park without lines and onlookers.

By my count, Six Flags still retains about ten medium to larger theme parks in the U.S. Including their flagship park Great Adventure (in New Jersey) and their massive, but struggling park Magic Mountain (in Valencia, CA). It will be interesting to see how the new company manages the properties.